Is it okay for players to keep secrets from the GM? How big should those secrets be?

Is it okay for players to keep secrets from the GM? How big should those secrets be?

In game? Kind of dumb, considering the GM controls everything. My rule of thumb is that if I foresee a role needed, it should involve them.

depends on the game

Depends on how it's done. Usually, most people do it in a fucking stupid way, and it doesn't work.

Rarely, it can work tho. I'd say it depends on group trust.

The rppr nights black agents game "operation black dolphin," is a pretty good example of one player keeping everyone in the dark to move the plot forward.

What kind of things can you keep secret without running into the problem of "if the GM doesn't know about it, it doesn't exist" ?

As long as its not something that can alter the game in a way that would be impossible with character actions, like for example hiding character background information

You cant just suddenly drop on your GM that you are actually royalty and expect him to humor you

here's the only secret a player should keep from the GM:

"I have this awesome plan I want to surprise the GM with"

i keep secrets because as he controls the game he controls the enemy so i will work out a plan and tell the GM at the last possible moment just so he does not have hours or days of prep time to prepare an enemy to counter what ever mad plan of the week is going on. also i like his reaction expressions when shenanigans happen

I have been told that you should always be open and honest with your GM but I have a hard time telling him that im gay and have the BIGGEST crush on him.

Is that too big of a secret?

I can't really imagine how you keep things secret from the GM and still expect them to work out/be ok with them when you do spring them on him.

Might just be bad experience for me though. Had one player who was a fallen noble which for the most part was alright. Noble losing his title and adventuring's a pretty common and solid enough base to work with. Except then he starts revealing that he has secret retainers still loyal/working for him, which is basically just an excuse to have contacts in random towns and get stuff. DM was fine with because it helped expedite a few things sometimes.

It became an issue when he continued revealing new, bigger, more "secret" things that it turned into an issue.Like the time he revealed he had a secret country that he was secretly ruling with a secret standing army to crush what he needed to, and a secret airship to move himself/said army around the globe at a moment's notice. He never seemed to understand why the DM shut that one down and why he can't just pull things out like that without talking to the DM.

it's this sort of Player Vs GM mentality that makes GMs burn out.

this
Everything else makes no sense whatsoever. If the GM doesn't know about something, he cannot use it in the game anyways.

I say this as a gm. Iam fine with your character having a secret feom the other players. But for the love of the game please tell me.

Work WITH the gm. Not against them. Gms love making conspiracies with a player if they want.

Gay people can only find other gay people attractive. That means your DM is gay as fuck.

I've always wanted to have a secret from my DM. But have never gotten the opportunity to keep a good secret.

Once I had a DM who didn't know any of my back story so I kinda had a secret? I told him the whole back story he just didn't listen or remember any of it.

Depends on what those secrets are. By all means, surprise your DM with your actions, but never try to surprise them with facts.
The problem with secret facts is that the DM can either give the okay for a fact, or veto it.
Until that point, what you have is a Schrodinger's fact, and the second it is revealed, it might be fine...or it might be totally not fine.

Yet in the meantime player is going to act with that fact in mind as though it is true. The player is going to act like "The character secretly is royalty" or "They secretly are a half-drow".

And when the secret must finally be revealed, and the DM says "No, you're not secretly a royal" or "No, you're not secretly a half-drow who looks 100% human, because those don't exist in this setting", then any actions the character has already undertaken that were built on that secret are suddenly put into question.

And then you'll get the inevitable "Oh, but if I wasn't X I wouldn't have done Y".
The character would never have gone on a vigilante spree assuming that as royalty they could get pardoned or could overrule the local constabulary. The character would never have attempted a raid at night with no torches.
All it causes is grief.

Or, depending on the GM, "I have an awesome plan and can't tell the GM until it's finished because they'll ruin it otherwise".

>Is it okay
Who the fuck cares. Who's policing this? It isn't good or bad, it just doesn't matter.

>to keep secrets from the GM
What's the point? Information he doesn't have won't get used. It may as well not exist.

Not sure if troll, or funniest joke I've read tonight.

You are a tremendous cunt.

You can try to be a killjoy all you want, but it's obvious you're in the "it isn't ok" camp

I guessed every plot point, almost exactly, every time. Of course I kept this to myself, and the other players.

I've just read a lot more fiction than them so I guess it's unfair. I mostly play for the social element since I like them, rather than the actual game and the story.

Unless you mean in-game character secrets. In which case no, my gm generally knows everything that my character thinks since I'll share it during or after the game in free time.

I've seen players keeping secrets go wrong a number of times, and it was obvious sometimes that it was going to if the person had just asked te rest of us.

Now, keeping secrets of other players (but not the gm) has worked great for me and for others several times. But that's totally different.

You deserve less flack than you've gotten. This is reasonable. It's the same shit as the post immediately above it, but in your case it's that you believe your GM will actively sabotage you.

In my experience that probably will happen if he thinks your plan "interferes" or "interupts" what he's prepared for.

Players are allow to keep secrets, except this one this secrets. They must tell me right away that their character is a dick sucking cum guzzling faggot or I will kill off their character(no saves) upon discovery.

Sometimes I suspect their character being a dick sucking cum guzzling faggot so I killed them off before the discovery.

I'm in a west march currently and my new character is being kept a secret from everyone, even the 4 game masters. It's all mostly RP reasons, give a bit of an investigation game thing to entertain myself and others. Didn't do any crazy homebrew they'd shoot down, so in the long run once the secret is out nothing major changes.